Sermon Texts

February 21, 2024 – Lent Text:  Luke 22:47-53

Dear Friends in Christ,

Family was gathering at the Lutheran Church for the funeral of a young man who was shot and spent months on life support.  Before the funeral could begin the mother was yelling at family for taking her son off of life support.  She ran to the front of the church, fell on the casket and started hitting the funeral directors who were trying to restrain her.  She ran outside to the hearse still screaming.  It was then that an attendee who didn’t even know the mom walked up and gave her a hug.  She whispered, “It was an honor to know your son.  He was a good kid.”  The mom’s demeanor completely changed.  She became quiet.  Another woman approached and did the same.  There was grace.  There was Christian love and restraint.  This little show of support said more than all the screaming before it.

Tonight the “God on Trial” takes place on the Mount of Olives.  We will see both sides of the issue.  One who couldn’t control himself and One who had to.

“RESTRAINT”

The crowd comes in the cover of darkness.  Why the mob?  Why the soldiers?  What has this man Jesus done?  Killed?  Robbed?  Blasphemed?  This night needs no charge.  This was mob justice and it was unfair.

The disciple Peter thought so.  He is not named here but is in another part of the Bible.  Even the servant who has his ear cut off is named elsewhere – Malchus.  Right after the question is asked, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” Peter acts.  Raises his sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus.  There is no restraint.  Just reaction.  He doesn’t think.  He does.

What is restraint?  The ability to hold back.  Self-control.  What do we first think if we are criticized or people aren’t listening to us or they say or write something that bothers us?  Restraint is not usually the first thought.  We think, “Why did they hurt me?  What did I do to deserve this?”  We have got dignity.  We have got a sense of justice.  We feel like we are on trial.  We get defensive.

So, the pressure builds along with the heart rate and blood pressure.  We are not going to take this.  We have to do something, right?  We don’t swing a sword, but we take a swipe at them with an angry text or e-mail.  We find our support system and bad mouth them.  We give a glare.  We fight back.  We can’t be expected to show restraint, can we? 

Jesus says, “No more of this.”  Then He heals.  He wasn’t thinking about himself.  Who should have been mad here?  Jesus, right?  He is the one being betrayed and accused.  But he heals this man who has a name – Malchus – Roman soldier and he is not a friend of Jesus.  Jesus is not thinking about Himself.  He was thinking of you.  The path to your salvation began with his surrender to this unholy mob.

Restraint is a theme in Jesus’ passion.  He showed restraint tonight.  He will show restraint before Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, and their factions.  As he was taunted and struck and ridiculed – Jesus never lashed out or lost his temper or called down curses from heaven.

We need this Jesus as our Savior.  We need his quiet and purposeful obedience to his Father’s will.  We need his perfection, his holiness, and his righteousness to be able to stand before our Father, and that’s exactly what Jesus came to give us by dying on the cross and rising from the dead.  We need his help too.

We live in a world where the quick comeback and zinger response are rewarded.  News channels give inflammatory reports to keep their loyal audience.  Social media algorithms target our sense of indignation to get us to engage.  This all rubs off on us.  The other person is faceless as long as we are heard.  What if we did something different like the ladies at the funeral?

Imagine the impact you can have if you show some restraint.  You know Jesus.  You know the one who showed love and restraint all the way to his sacrificial death on the cross for sinners like us.  We can use words that help and heal instead of inflame and destroy.  We can respond graciously and not impulsively when we are provoked by those around us.  

This behavior, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance can be a strength and not a weakness.  Jesus’ restraint tonight can be our restraint.  What do you think Malchus thought of Jesus from that moment on?

Instead of fighting back, you can swing the sword of the Spirit – the Gospel of Jesus.  And maybe as others see this opposite of the world behavior and the message behind it, they will come to know Jesus’ love.

Amen.       

February 14, 2024 – Ash Wednesday       Text:  Job 40:1-2, 42:1-6

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever been accused of something you didn’t do?  Painful, isn’t it?  Accusations can ruin family relationships, marriages, jobs and a reputation.  Old Testament Job knew all about accusations.

His suffering is legendary.  Let’s review.  Animals and servants dead – 10,000 casualties.  Wealth and income goodbye.  Roof collapses at the dinner table, seven sons and three daughters lie lifeless.  What would you do?  What would you say?  Somehow, Job uttered these famous words of faith, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21)  The man was devastated but he did not charge God with wrongdoing.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end.  He was consumed with chronic pain.  Been there, done that.  Miserable, right?  His wife wanted him to curse God.  But he didn’t.

What have you suffered?  Finances in arears?  Those close to you in eternity?  A relationship that weighs on the mind?  Friends can help, right?  Job’s friends did come visit him.  They sat in silence, which is sometimes the best thing a friend can do.  But then they open their mouths.  Not smart.  They try to explain.  They try to rationalize.  They even think Job might deserve this.  A good lesson for us in there.

The friends push him in a direction that has him saying to God,  “Why have you made me your target?  Have I become a burden to you?”  Job is putting God on Trial.

Over these next several weeks, we will see how people put God on Trial for reasons far less justifiable than Job’s.  We will hear how Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, and the angry crowds all accused the Son of God in the flesh.  But before we do, on this Ash Wednesday we must consider how we have done the same – how we too have put God on Trial.

“ACCUSATIONS”

Maybe we don’t say it out loud, but is it ever in there?  “Lord, why did my spouse have to die?”  “I miss my parent, I could have used their advice today.”  “Why must this tension between my boss and I churn in my gut?”  “Lord, this pain is becoming a pain!”

The accusations are there.  The impatience and frustration simmer on the surface.  The complaining and criticism get verbalized.  God, would you please take the stand to explain yourself.

He speaks.  What does He have to say?  He says to Job, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?  He who argues with God, let him answer it.” (40:2)  Not the guy you want to argue with.  He reminds little human being Job how He made the universe.  Put in the boundaries.  Hung the stars.  Controls the weather.  Job sniffs the smelling salts and says, “I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (42:6)  God does put Job in his place and that is a good thing.  It was a place of repentance.

If we accuse God, we get this whole human life things backwards.  We are the ones that should be put on trial by God.  “Please raise your right hand . . .”  How many of us would jump down from there and go running down the courthouse corridor?  

Please, come back, but come back in repentance.  Maybe God has used Christian friends, parents, teachers, coaches, preachers and His Word to waken you with some smelling salts.  God doesn’t want you or I to lose our faith and subsequently our salvation.  Tonight, hear the call, through the words of Job, repent in dust and ashes.

Job accused God, but he never lost faith in God.  In the very middle of the book, Job cried out words that become etched in the poetry of our Easter celebration:   “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” (Job 19:25-26)  We know that Redeemer’s name:  Jesus.

This Lent we will see our Redeemer up close as he stands trial.  He will be betrayed.  Arrested by a mob.  Charged with blasphemy.  False witnesses brought forward.  He will be spit on and have fists slammed into his face.  They will give him a wardrobe change and then laugh at him.  He will just stand there and take it.  He won’t complain that he is not a sinner.  He will take the accusations.  He will undo the accusations of Satan.  He will carry them all to the cross of Calvary.  Justice will be served.

Remember this when you suffer.  The Lord gave Satan permission to afflict Job.  God was in complete control.  He didn’t let Satan take Job’s life and he didn’t let him take his faith.  In fact, God brought blessings to Job – and to us who read about them.

There is no need to accuse.  We don’t need to understand because God does.  He is Our Redeemer.  He lives and He is right there beside you.  See you in the courtroom next week.

Amen.  

February 11, 2024 – Transfiguration Text:  2 Corinthians 3:12-13; 4:1-6

Dear Friends in Christ,

Somebody is “in their glory” when they are at their best.  When do you think your mother was/is most in her glory?  When she is all dolled up, looking pretty, ready to go out for a nice dinner?  Or when mom came to you in the middle of the night with hair all mussed to take care of you when you were sick?  On a personal level most of us would say when she gave comfort at 2 a.m.  She showed her love.  She was in her glory. 

When is Jesus in His glory?  Is it today at the Transfiguration?  After all, he is radiant, and His Father says He loves Him.  But the greater glory was the bloodied and beaten body of Jesus on the cross.  That is where He most clearly shows His love.  He comforts us in our sin and forgives us.  Oh, what glory.

This is the Gospel message.  We don’t hide or veil ourselves behind our sin.  Drop the charade.  You and I are sinners, and we know it.  Step out so the glory can shine on you.

“THE VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY”

The first veil is the veil Moses put over his face.  This is the old covenant.  “Moses…would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.” (v. 13). This is the teaching that the Law cannot save us.  Israel was being taught that without the shedding of blood, there could be no atonement.  On their “Day of Atonement” they would sacrifice a “scapegoat.”  They were learning how God would redeem the world, by transferring our sins to another.  With every Passover, they were to look to “the Lamb of God” who would once and for all take away the sins of the world.  Jesus would be the fulfillment of that covenant, once the veil is taken away.

It is too bad that some do not see beyond the old covenant; the veil essentially remains.  The Scriptures remain a closed book, and we miss seeing the one behind the veil:  Christ . . . on every page!

Our Gospel from Mark is the Transfiguration event.  We see in Mark, the three disciples were “terrified.”  They are afraid even before the clouds and voice appear.

We know about clouds overshadowing us.  How many times have you been driving in fog the last couple of weeks?  Not a comfortable feeling.  The car coming towards you is hidden and then there it is.  It has literally come out of the veil of fog.

What veils do we hide behind?  Do we ever hide behind our glory?  The feel-good moments.  The compliments.  The accomplishments.  “I’m a better driver than that person who  won’t put their lights on in this fog.”  “I would never lie like that guy on television.”  “How can people do that?”  We veil our sinful condition in subtle ways that we hardly notice.  We are in a fog, and we need an escape.  It is this same veil that kept many in Israel from receiving him.  John writes in his Gospel, “he came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13)

When Jesus said from the cross “It is finished,” the veil was being lifted.  The veil was also torn in two from top to bottom in the temple.  The fog has lifted, the veil is taken away, we can see the Lord clearly.  We see Him as He truly is – our Savior from sin, death, and the power of the Law.  In fact, we, by God’s grace, with “unveiled faces,” also begin to reflect the glory of Christ as the Gospel has its way with us.  The Law cannot produce such a change.  The Gospel can, because it’s all about Christ and what He accomplishes for us on the cross.

God continues transforming and transfiguring us as we hear the Word of God and frequently use the Sacraments.  This is a lifetime event, until we make our “exodus” to eternity.

Paul would continue his apostolic ministry.  He didn’t lose heart because it wasn’t about Moses or Elijah.  It is only about Jesus.  Paul is free.  We are free.  Free to confess Christ.

St. Paul doesn’t resort to “disgraceful, underhanded ways.” (4:2)  He doesn’t have to sugarcoat the Word of God to make it more appealing.  Paul had it in his day, we have it in ours.  We simply confess Christ as Lord and Savior when and where God gives the opportunity.  As our text says some are going to be “blinded” but we don’t lose the courage or moxie, because the result isn’t our responsibility.  That always and only rests in the hands of God.

God has shone in our hearts.  He has given us the knowledge.  The veil has been taken away.  Be bold confessors of the new covenant – “Jesus Christ as Lord.” (4:5)

Amen.

January 28, 2024               Text:  1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

Let’s start with a little background about the city of Corinth, so we can better understand the subject matter in our text.  Corinth had temples to pagan gods.  Corinth had a temple with 1,000 priestesses who were sacred prostitutes.  To live “like a Corinthian” meant immorality and debauchery.

In these temples the worshippers would offer sacrifices.  You would bring in your animal, the priest would kill and clean it and then it would be burned.  A plume of smoke would ascend to the heavens to influence the gods.  Only a small part of the meat was incinerated, the rest was roasted.  Everyone knew if you wanted a good cheap meal, you could pick one up at your neighborhood temple.  It was the fast food of the day.

Some of the Christians were eating the meat as a matter of Christian freedom.  Since the idols were nothing to them it didn’t bother them that the meat had been offered to idols.  On the other hand, there were Christians in Corinth who had weak consciences because of their former association with idols.  This became a stumbling block and faith was destroyed.

How do we use our Christian freedom?  What are some of the issues of our day that can relate to the text?  Do we lift up or hurt our weak brothers and sisters?  Paul warns,

“DON’T BE A STUMBLING BLOCK”

What is going on in 21^st century where-you-are-ville?  No one these days is writing e-mails to their Pastor or our Synod’s Theology Review Board concerning “food offered to idols.”  But what issues do we face that might cause us to be a stumbling to a weaker brother or sister?

The first one would be alcohol.  Again, this falls under Christian freedom.  Should we have a cocktail in front of someone who is struggling with alcoholism?  Probably not because this might lead them down a path, we don’t want to see them go.

Another one is a more recent phenomenon.  It is the idea that anyone can get a license to marry someone.  Our family attended a wedding like this, and the ceremony was God-awful.  The only way I survived was through prayer and putting my head down for the whole half-hour.  Because marriage was ordained by God and has usually been the duty of the Church and the Pastor it is a bad look.  It cheapens my ordination and the ordination and education of my brother Pastor’s.  It does not build the faith, but it sure does put up a stumbling block to husband and wife under the auspices of their Creator.  Yes, again we have Christian freedom but is it the right way to use it?

For Paul and the Holy Spirit my right to exercise some of these freedoms stops when a brother or sister is tripped up.  We don’t live in a closed system.  We live in a family of brothers and sisters.  These are brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.

We get stuck on ourselves and our rights.  Stop looking at your belly buttons – innies, outies, things get stuck in there.  Nasty.  We need something else to look at.  

Look to the beautiful.  Look to the forgiving.  Look to the forever.  This something is a someone, and his name is Jesus.  From all eternity he has been concerned about you.  Two thousand years ago he was concerned about living and dying for you and rising for you.  

Today he was concerned about making sure you woke up on time to get here.  See, he wants to be sure you know that you are forgiven.  He wants you to know that if you have been a stumbling block, you can repent and start anew with better judgment and an uplifting attitude.  Today he wants to feed you his body and blood as a member of his family.  

The relationship between God and us is always one of grace, pure and undeserved love.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”  In Christ, we have been freed from the Law, “but take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” (v. 9). We are saved by grace alone, for Christ’s sake, through faith, and our love is a love that builds up our Christian brother and sister.  

Let’s use our freedom wisely, for Christ’s sake.

Amen.

January 21, 2024 – Sanctity of Human Life Sunday               Text:  Jonah 3:1-4:3

Dear Friends in Christ,

Is the church today a reluctant messenger when it comes to life issues?  Do we run away from sharing this message?  Don’t we want families dealing with an unplanned pregnancy or those facing end-of-life decisions to know about a God who does not abandon them in their challenges?  Don’t we want men and women to know God’s compassion and forgiveness and direction?  We can’t run away just because it might be uncomfortable.

We have a man in our text who knows about running away from the uncomfortable.  Jonah’s the name.  He is a . . . 

“RELUCTANT MESSENGER”

God has a plan and wants Jonah to carry it out.  Go to Nineveh and tell them to repent.  In his first try, Jonah ran away.  But being swallowed up by a big fish and then vomited up has a way of getting a man’ attention.  He is still reluctant.  So, he pouts.  “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry.” (4:1)  Didn’t he want the people to be saved?  Did he want them to suffer God’s wrath?  OK, OK, the Ninevites were enemies of Israel, but Jonah this is still rather selfish.

Jonah had a message, but it wasn’t his, it was God’s.  God told him, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” (3:2). Reluctantly, he went to Nineveh with God’s message.  This wasn’t easy.  Nineveh had thousands of people.  Jonah was alone and he wasn’t going with a popular message.  “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (3:4)

There was power in that message because it was God’s message.  It wasn’t Jonah they believed, verse 5 says, “the people of Nineveh believed God.”  They understood the truth and power of the message.  They humbled themselves and it brought about godly results.

Look at what happened when they repented.  “God relented of the disaster he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” (3:10). He did not punish as He had a right to do.  His great love restrained Him from carrying out His judgment.  This frustrated Jonah.  He wanted these people punished.  Then he prayed and he says this, “you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (4:2)  This reluctant messenger had a powerful message because it was God’s message.

When it comes to life issues, we have a powerful message because it is God’s message.  The message is not only a “do this” or “don’t to do that” but it is a message that says, “Look what God has done.”  He created the first humans in his own image.  Even though sin messed it all up, God is still involved, The Psalmist writes, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Ps. 139:13).  Job reminds us that in God’s hand are “the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” (Job 12:10)

The value of each human being comes through God’s redeeming hands.  The same hands that knit you together stretched out on a cross to pay for your sin.  You were bought with a price, the holy and precious blood of Jesus.  That gives life value.

What a positive message of God-given life we have to share.  The embryo in the petri dish, the baby in the womb, the child on the playground, the child with Down syndrome playing with him, the athlete, the paraplegic in the wheelchair, the energetic businesswoman, the young woman with MS, grandpa on the golf course, grandma in the nursing home – all are people created by God.  All of these are people from whom Jesus died.  Therefore, all have value and dignity and purpose.  Why be reluctant to share such a powerful message?

There are those out there and maybe in here that have made bad decisions about life and death.  But we never take the attitude of Jonah that we hope they get what they deserve.  In my lifetime I have heard so many speakers who have made bad decisions and regretted it.  God changed their lives not through bashing them but through loving people and loving organizations that were there to support them.  They had God’s message of forgiveness.  Remember from our text that God is “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”  Steadfast means that it is always there.  God promises never to leave or forsake.  There is no situation beyond God’s power to help.  Look at the positives He has brought about with life issues just in the last few years.  He uses us, His reluctant messengers for His purposes.  We counsel, we walk, we attend banquets, we rally.  We are there if it affects our family or our church.  We don’t run away.  That is never the answer.

Jonah, the reluctant messenger finally realized this.  God knew what He was doing.  In this Epiphany season may be reminded of the Church’s responsibility to share the message of what God has done in Jesus.  We apply what God has done in Jesus to the life issues of our time.  It is a message of repentance.  A message of God’s love and compassion.  We don’t have to be reluctant to share such a powerful and positive message of life.

Amen.   

January 14, 2024 Text:  1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Dear Friends in Christ,

What is our identity?  Who exactly are we?  Does our body play any role at all?  Robert George claims we live in an age of “Gnostic Liberalism.”  According to this worldview, “You and I as persons, are identified entirely with the spirit or mind, or psyche, and not all with the body that we occupy and use.”  The soul is merely the ghost in the machine.  The body is merely the container for the inner-self.

The pro-life movement points to bodily DNA, a beating heart, and the ultrasound picture.  Biology is on our side.  But a Princeton Professor Peter Singer can still say, “The life of a newborn baby is of less value to it than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee is to the nonhuman animal.”  A body is not enough to claim personhood.  People claim we need more.  

St. Paul says in our text, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” (v. 13b). Paul then offers this, “and God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.” (v. 14). If the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the resurrection is real, then the destruction of the body will be dealt with in the age to come.

In our funerals we have less casket and burial and more urn and cremation.  We celebrate life after death in our local bar but neglect to talk about the life to come.  We talk less of death as falling asleep, for if we did, we would be reminded we are going to awaken and see Jesus face-to-face.  If the body is gone, judgment day will never come, and the things I do today are inconsequential.  But let us not lose hope.  St. Paul encourages us . . . 

“AT HOME IN THE BODY”

Jesus is King.  Even as we fight these different worldviews, we are still about seeking and sharing the message of the Gospel.  We see and know those who have no hope.  We have something to live for and something worth dying for.  Children of divorce long for identity.  Those mutilated by transgender surgery, those who have found the gay lifestyle depressing, and those raised in same-sex marriages have come to see that the pot at the end of the rainbow flag was fool’s gold.  I read more and more about those on the road to Damascus.

We are not chastising others for their mistakes.  This is a bodily sickness that affects our whole society.  As the body of Christ, we are in this together.  While we don’t need to justify ourselves, we can give people a chance to start over.

What might the church have to offer?  We have a message of affirmation.  A way for our people to be at home once more in their physical body and in the body of Christ.  We don’t teach a means of escape, we proclaim forgiveness and recovery, a re-creation, a new Genesis.  We speak a message of a fallen nature meant for better things, a humanity created in God’s image and redeemed by Christ’s blood.

The life to come should make us all courageous.  We anchor our hope in Christ’s resurrection.  We fear no one, except God.  As we recover the sacredness of the body, we will no longer be flippant when a baker or florist is driven out of business.  We can’t just stand idly by as a teacher is fired for wrong pronouns.  They are fellow members in the body of Christ.  St. Paul writes this, “If one member suffers, all suffer together.” (1 Cor. 12:26). Their burdens are ours.

We can’t just fast forward to the resurrection.  We must speak of the crucifixion, the body on the cross.  As we look at that man, himself scarred and abandoned, we say, “Behold the Man.”  In that crucified body, we view the hope of the world, the one who invites us into the home of His Father.  A return to the crucifix, so we can see our wounds have been sanctified.  This means a return to our Baptism into the body of Christ.  This means a return to the altar, where we eat true body and true blood.  There is no spiritual worship apart from bodily worship, whether it is the body of Christ or ours.

In Christ, we reclaim our identity as men and women, husbands and wives, members of God’s family, so that we might feel at home in the body of Christ, His Church.  We have a message that heals wounds and helps body and soul.  Remember this:  the body matters, it belongs to Christ like our text tells us, “You are not your own for you have been bought with a price.” (19b-20)

In our age of scattering, this brings us together.  Blest be the tie that binds us to the Lord.  These are the ties that bind husband and wife as one, that bind parents to their children and grandchildren.  As people go their separate ways, we offer a homecoming, a seat at the family table, a place of belonging, a place where we matter to others and to God, a place where we know who we are as Christians.  At Home In The Body.

Amen.